North Korea jails American

Kim Dong Chul had been detained in the North on suspicion of engaging in spying and stealing state secrets. He is the second American to be put behind bars this year.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour after a brief trial in Pyongyang. North Korea’s Supreme Court found Kim guilty of crimes and espionage and subversion of under Articles 60 and 64 of the North’s criminal code.

Further details were not immediately available.

When he was paraded before the media in Pyongyang last month, Kim said he had collaborated with and spied for South Korean intelligence authorities in a plot to bring down the North’s leadership and had tried to spread religion among North Koreans before his arrest in the city of Rason last October. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the country’s main spy agency, has said Kim’s case was not related to the organisation in any way. Read more